Morocco

Last year’s Prix Goncourt — France’s most prestigious literary award — went to Moroccan writer Leila Slimani for her Chanson Douce. Why this novel? What work does this prize do? From an essay that originally appeared in Arabic on Al… Read More ›

“Also yesterday, Lebanese-American novelist Rabih Alameddine took this year’s Prix Femina Étranger for ‘Les Vies de papier’ (the French version of ‘An Unnecessary Woman’), as translated by Nicolas Richard. “

“Complete with fight scenes, love scenes, and warrior women, this epic follows a woman and her son and their posse of friends as they move back and forth primarily in the Arab-Byzantine borderlands, with visits to Constantinople and to the caliph’s court in Baghdad.”

“It′s populated by the European hippies who floated around Morocco, but written from the point of view of Ali, a long-haired gym teacher from Casablanca who travels out to the country′s west coast because he too wants to smoke hash, drink wine, enjoy free love and swim nude in the ocean.”

“My uncle, the famous historian Abdallah Laroui, once told my French publisher: ‘My nephew’s style is ironic and humorous. I have no idea where it comes from: we Laroui’s are renowned for our lack of humor.'”